George at the Wheel; Or, Life in the Pilot-House

by Harry Castlemon

"Well, there's no need of it. If I were my own master, as you are, I should do as I please."

"And you would please to go to sea, I suppose?"

"Of course I would. That is what I am going to do sometime; and I don't see why my father will not let me go now."

"Perhaps he has something better in view for you," suggested George.

"He can't have anything in view for me that will suit me half so well," replied Tony, with the air of one who had made up his mind. "I am old enough to know what I want, and what I don't want. Let me have her now."

The Telegraph had by this time been backed away from the levee, and straightened up the river, and George felt safe in resigning the wheel to his companion. But he did not go far away from it. There were a good many boats running about, some moving out of their berths and others going in; and as it required some skill to steer clear of all of them, George stood close by, so that he could seize the wheel in an instant; while Tony, who was no mean steersman, managed it with one hand, and kept up an almost constant signaling with the other.

When two boats meet, one going down and the other up the river, or if a boat is backing out into the stream while another is coming up, the upper boat has the right of way, but the lower one always whistles first. For example, Smith, who is piloting a boat up the river, may whistle once to notify Brown, who is coming down the river, that he (Smith) intends to turn his boat to the right, so as to pass by on Brown's left hand. If the latter is satisfied with the arrangement, he gives notice of the fact by whistling once in reply; but if he is not satisfied with it, if he wants to make a landing, or pick up a tow, or do anything else that required him to make Smith pass by on his right hand instead of the left, he whistles twice; and Smith must reply to the signal, to show that he understands it; get his boat out of Brown's way, and go by on the other side. The burden of the responsibility in avoiding a collision, if one seemed likely to occur, would rest with the pilot who was going up the river; for the reason, that his vessel could be handled much more easily and quickly, than the one that was coming down driven by all the force of a powerful current. George had learned all these things, as well as a good many others, during the comparatively short time he had been under Mr. Black's instructions; and knowing his responsibility, he did not feel willing to trust his boat entirely in the hands of his friend Tony.

The nearer the Telegraph approached to the coal-fleet, which was composed of a number of barges moored to the bank two or three miles above the city, the clearer the river became, and presently George moved away from the wheel and seated himself on the bench. He kept one eye on Tony, who was too busy to talk, and the other out ahead to see that nothing came in their way.

The young pilot had been acquainted with his new friend long enough to know that he was a very discontented boy, and he could not see why it was so. He did not then know that the source of happiness is within ourselves, and that our surroundings have not so much to do with it as our own dispositions. By Tony's invitation he had once accompanied him to his home, and he had found there all the aids to happiness that any reasonable boy could ask for; but still Mr. Richardson was strict, and Tony was very much of a rebel The more he resisted lawful authority the tighter the reins were drawn, until Tony finally came to the conclusion that home was always a dreary place, that fathers found no pleasure in life except in denying their sons every gratification on which they had set their hearts, and that no boy of any spirit would put up with such a state of affairs after he became able to take care of himself. George was not long in finding out how matters stood, and he wasted all his eloquence in the effort to make Tony believe that he was then seeing the happiest years of his life.

"You may some time know by experience, what it is to have no home to go to," said George. "Stranger things than that have happened, you know, and then you will wish that you had made the most of these days, which now seem so gloomy to you, and improved the opportunities you slight every hour of your life."